User:Sir Plato

OBIBIEZENA

OBIBIEZENA: A COMMUNITY IN DIRE NEED OF PEACE AND TRANQUILITY.

BY Anuma Gregory Ikenna Plato.

Peace- the most fundamental asset to Community building, personal growth and to the very survival of our planet. At the heart of many Faith's, practices and cultures,advancing peaceful coexistence is sini quanon (essential) to ensuring productive, meaningful lives and sustainable societies. Peace entails agreement and harmony among people,it means to live without violence, conflict or war. Peace underlies our quality of life and the fabric of our community.

For over a decade now, peace has in a way eluded our dear Community Obibiezena Autonomous Community in Owerri North Local Government Area of Imo State, as such it calls for drastic action to restore peace and tranquility in this Community known to be peaceful ab initio. The importance of peace to Community building cannot be overemphasized, peace enriches our communities and individual lives as it directs one to embrace diversity and support one another to the fullest extent possible. Our dead Community Obibyis in dire need of this peace, a popular Igbo saying goes this way " Obodo Udo do, Oganihu di" that is where there is Peace and harmony there is always progress and Development.

It still baffles me to learn that our dear Community Obibiezena, a community with relatively homogeneous people, culture and general modus vivendi still find it an upheal task to coexist habitually in peace and tranquility. Whatever factor could have induced this may still be a mirage. Some say the root problem is from the perpetual disconcord that exist between two major leadership structures in the community, 'the Nze' and 'ODU' while others say the cause is inherent in the youth festiveness in the community.

Over the years, Obibiezena has unfortunately metamorphosed gradually from being a very peaceful and accommodating Community into a tumultuous and anarchic society known for many social vices such as cultidm, robbery, thuggery and fraud ( 419). Many of our youths nowadays try to alleviate themselves from being identified with the community name 'Obibiezena'. I know of an unfortunate incident when one of our vibrant youths was denied a merited banking job just because his CV read Obibiezena as his home town which the bank erroneously described as a community of fraudstars. We must stand up and reject this unwanted image as a community because the Obibiezena I know are good people ( Obibi Ndi oma) and not fraudstars.

Insecurity in the once peaceful Community has enormously exacerbated within the community, My late father Mr. Charle Chukwuemeka Anuma ( may his soul rest in peace) used to tell me stories of how they usually went from Ogbeke to Emeke and Amaeze on foot even as late as 11pm in the night and also return whenever they wanted without any threat but nowadays, embarking on such movements even from Ogbeke to Amaorie or from Emeke to Amaeze is virtually suicidal, I also remember a popular saying within our community which says " Obibi anaghi Obibi Ibeya" i.e An Ezenan does not cheat or harm his fellow Ezenan, but in the present day this statement is fallacious as evidenced by so many cases of clandestine activities, I have witnessed a youth from one village in Obibiezena cut his fellow youth from another village in Obibiezena with Cutlass all in the name of cult and fraternity, this is execrably preposterous, I don't want to overemphasize the upsurging cases of cultidm but I will advise that let our cult be " Obibiezena cult' let us all imbibe the spirit of seeing our fellow Ezenans as a brother no matter his village Amaeze, Emeke, Amaorie or Ogbeke, we are all one. Anybody found to aid the unwanted state of disconcord and conflict in our dear Community must be declared a persona non grata. It is high time we spoke out, have a symposium to restore peace in our community. According to the great philosopher Plato " Any peace is better than any war and conflict".

I thus implore all leadership structures in our dear Community Obibiezena to establish a working camaraderie and try to embrace peace in our community. I plead with our amiable and indefatigable traditional ruler HRH Eze Dr. Sir Peter Onyewuenyi (Nwachimereze) Ezena III, our charismatic President General (PG) of Obibiezena Development Union (ODU) Hon. Sir Tochukwu Okere and the Vibrant National President (NP) of Obibiezena Youths Association (OYA) Igwe Markmorrison Okere and all other leadership heads in Obibiezena to create a synergy and channel their highly proficient acumen at restoring and reinstating peace and tranquility in Obibiezena.

I use this medium to therefore plead with all leadership bodies, The Oha, the Eze,the Chiefs, the town Union, the Women, the Youths, the political parties etc to please embrace peace, I beg us all to ignore unnecessary hierarchical tussles and focus our strengths on the nitty gritty of making Obibiezena peaceful and great again.

Nowadays, many of our people especially youths feel ashamed and abashed to be identified as a person from Obibiezena, this should not be so. I believe in this Community and always proud to be identified with Obibiezena, I believe Obibiezena will work again, I believe in one indivisible Obibiezena and it begins with us all individually, like The great Socrates says " An unexamined life is not with living" Let us search our consciences and make Obibiezena work again. I believe in one Obibiezena, I belong to the 'Obibiezena cult'.

Long live Obibiezena Autonomous Community!

By; Anuma Gregory Ikenna Plato

Member, OYA & ODU Abuja branch.

June 2021